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Ive heard that some organic farmers would really like to be able to use biotech, and actually are appreciative of being able to benefit from a neighboring farms insect resistance, for example it helps their own field have less insects, too. Is that accurate?

Question Submitted By: aggirl from Louisville, Colorado ** Questions submitted to GMO Answers appear as written at the time of submission.
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It is not surprising that some organic farmers would like to be able to use biotech. There is a push by some academics for biotech to be part of the “green revolution,” including organics. After all, biotech, such as Bt crops, is a form of host-plant resistance, similar to traditional breeding for insect control. Moreover, Bt has been used in agriculture for over 50 years and is widely used in certified organic agriculture. So the scenario stated above, wherein an organic farmer benefits from a neighbor's farm that actively controls insect populations (does not have to be biotech or Bt crops; can be virtually any insect-control measure that reduces insect populations), has merit. Actually, the recipient of "free insect control" does not have to be an organic farmer. It could be any farmer who does not control the same insect species as rigorously as a neighbor. However, there are some caveats to this practice of using "free insect control":

The insect population could be large enough that even if the population were suppressed in a neighbor¹s field, there would still be enough insects to damage neighboring fields.

If the crop to protect has a very low ET (economic threshold‹the level of damage you can tolerate before you initiate some type of control), such as fresh market fruits and vegetables, where only a very small amount of damage can be tolerated, relying on insect population suppression solely by one¹s neighbors would be risky.

Corn Insect Resistant Management Lead, Monsanto Company

I am an entomologist having received my PhD in 1990 from University of California, Riverside characterizing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). I spent the next 19 years as a professor in entomology at Auburn University teaching courses in insects, economic entomology, and toxicology while conducting research on Bt proteins and Bt resistance in caterpillars that feed on cotton and corn. Since coming to Monsanto in 2009, my primary responsibilities are insect resistance management (IRM) aspects of Monsanto’s pipeline for insect control products primarily for corn.